Old Bay Salmon Rillettes are the perfect mashup of French cuisine with Maryland flavor. Spread over your favorite cracker for a delicious appetizer that will delight friends and family.
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Why Make This Recipe
- Quick and easy to make! This recipe comes together in under 20 minutes, then can be kept in the refrigerator until you’re ready to serve.
- Healthy and packed with protein, vitamins, and Omega-3s from the salmon. Replacing some of the butter in a traditional rillettes recipe with Greek yogurt lightens it up a bit.
- Unexpected but absolutely delicious. While rillettes are a common appetizer in France, they aren’t common in other regions of the globe. But they should be! This American take on this French dish is a great introduction to rillettes.
🥗 Ingredients
- Salmon: Choose a nice thick salmon fillet. Wild or responsible farm-raised if you can find it.
- White Wine: I love the flavor that white wine adds to this dish, and the alcohol is boiled out as it cooks on the stovetop. However, if you don’t want to use white wine or don’t have access to it, you can replace this with seafood stock or even water.
- Shallot: Feel free to replace with red onion.
- Greek yogurt: You can try mayonnaise or creme fraiche as an alternative to Greek yogurt. Or just go full on with butter!
🥣 Instructions
- Thinly slice one shallot, zest lemon, and let 5 tablespoons of butter warm up enough to be spreadable. You can microwave it briefly to soften it up, but be careful not to melt it.
- Bring ½ cup wine and 1 ½ cups of water to a simmer in a saucepan large enough to hold the salmon fillet. You want it to be just about covered with the liquid. (Using a deep skillet is also fine.)
- Add salmon and simmer gently for 8 minutes, or until cooked through. Feel free to turn salmon as it simmers to make sure all sides are cooked through. Remove from pan and let cool.
- Add 1 tablespoon of butter to a small nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add 1 finely chopped shallot and sauté until lightly browned, about 3-5 minutes. Let cool.
- Whisk together 4 tablespoons of butter, 2 tablespoons of Greek yogurt, 1 tablespoon of Old Bay seasoning, ½ teaspoon of lemon zest, 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, and 1 tablespoon of chopped chives. Taste and add more Old Bay seasoning as desired.
- Pat dry cooled salmon, then break up into flakes, removing skin. Stir gently into the butter mixture, along with the cooked shallots. Then spread into ramekins or other serving dish.
- Chill for 30 minutes to allow the flavors to meld and the butter to firm up again.
- Sprinkle with Old Bay seasoning before serving.
🧐 Recipe FAQs
Yes, this is a great dish for make-ahead. Simply chill the rillettes in the refrigerator in their serving dish. It will keep for up to three days. Note that the Old Bay flavor begins to mellow after some time in the refrigerator, so you may want to garnish with more seasoning before serving.
Also, take out salmon rillettes about 10-20 minutes before you want to eat them, so that the butter has time to soften slightly. This will make for a tastier dip that’s easier to spread too.
Old Bay Seasoning was originally introduced over 75 years ago by a German immigrant who started the Baltimore Spice Company. His blend, called “Delicious Brand Shrimp and Crab Seasoning,” was made to support the nearby seafood market in Baltimore but was later renamed Old Bay seasoning after the Old Bay Line, a passenger ship that traveled the Chesapeake Bay line between Baltimore and Norfolk, VA.
The spice company McCormick and Co bought the rights to Old Bay Seasoning in 1900 and has produced it ever since. Old Bay is a blend of 18 herbs and spices that feature red pepper, celery salt, and paprika. In Maryland, Old Bay is a long-standing tradition, used for tossing steamed crabs in as well as seasoning crab cakes or other seafood items. Old Bay is also used to top popcorn, french fries, potato chips, bloody marys, and more.
👩🍳 Expert Tips for Salmon Gillette's
• Not overcooking the salmon is the key to Old Bay Salmon Rillettes. Make sure that your water is only at a simmer, and not fully boiling. Since you will end up flaking the entire fillet, you won’t ruin it by checking whether the salmon is cooked through. Just stick your fork into it and see whether the flesh flakes apart. Note that if you have very thin fillets, they may be poached in less time than thicker fillets.
• Pay attention to the different temperatures in this recipe—the butter needs to be soft but not melted, in order to mix it with the rest of the ingredients. The salmon needs to cool after cooking, to prevent melting the butter. The shallots need to cool after caramelizing, for the same reason. Then the finished dish needs to chill together for the full flavor to come together. Finally, it’s best served cold, but not straight out of the fridge, so that the rillettes are easy to spread.
• Love Old Bay Seasoning? Me too. Try it in this Old Bay Shrimp with Dipping Sauce recipe and in this Old Bay Salmon with Peach Avocado Salsa. And of course, it's critical in my Maryland-Style Crab Cakes recipe! It's fantastic in my Maryland Cream of Crab Soup and my Old Bay Shrimp Salad too.
Other Delicious Appetizers
If you enjoyed this Old Bay Salmon Rillettes recipe and are looking for more crowd-pleasing appetizers, you’ll find lots of options here on my Appetizers page. Some of my favorites include:
If you try this recipe, I would love to hear from you! Leave a comment below—I read them all, and your feedback is invaluable to me. And please follow along on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook or subscribe to my newsletter. I'd love to inspire you with more delicious, healthy, and seasonal recipes!
📖 Recipe
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Old Bay Salmon Rillettes
Ingredients
- 12 ounces salmon fillet
- ½ cup white wine
- 1 large shallot
- 5 tablespoons unsalted butter softened
- 2 tablespoons plain Greek yogurt
- 1 tablespoon Old Bay seasoning plus more for garnish
- ½ teaspoon lemon zest
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon chopped chives
Instructions
- Bring wine and 1 ½ cups of water to a simmer in a saucepan large enough to hold the salmon fillet. (A deep skillet is also fine.) The fillet should be just about covered with the liquid.
- Add salmon and simmer gently for 8 minutes, or until cooked through. Feel free to turn it over as it simmers to make sure all sides are cooked through. Remove from pan and let cool, then pat dry.
- Meanwhile, thinly slice shallot.
- Add 1 tablespoon of butter to a small nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.
- Add shallot and sauté until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Let cool.
- Whisk together the rest of the butter, Greek yogurt, Old Bay seasoning, lemon zest, lemon juice, and chopped chives.
- Flake cooled salmon, removing skin, and stir gently into the butter mixture, along with the sautéed shallots.
- Spread into a ramekin or another serving dish.
- Chill for 30 minutes to allow the flavors to meld and the butter to firm up again.
- Sprinkle with Old Bay seasoning before serving.
Notes
- This is a great dish to make-ahead. Simply chill the rillettes in the refrigerator in their serving dish. It will keep for up to three days. Note that the Old Bay flavor begins to mellow after some time in the refrigerator, so you may want to garnish with extra seasoning before serving. Also, take out salmon rillettes about 15-20 minutes before you want to eat it, so that the butter has time to soften slightly. This will make for a tastier dip that’s easier to spread too.
- Not overcooking the salmon is the key to this recipe. Make sure that your water is only at a simmer, and not fully boiling. Since you will end up flaking the entire fillet, you won’t ruin it by checking whether the salmon is cooked through. Just stick your fork into it and see whether the flesh flakes apart.
Nutrition
Instagram Users: Now that you've made this recipe, tag me @vanillabeancuisine or #vanillabeancuisine because I'd love to see your results!
More About Molly
Cooking healthy(ish) meals with seasonal ingredients is my passion. Trained as a French pastry chef, I spent over 10 years as a personal chef. Here you'll find well-tested recipes that you and your family will love!
Heidi | The Frugal Girls says
This would be so fabulous served at Fall parties, Thanksgiving or even Christmas. I really love all the flavors you've incorporated!
Chef Molly says
Thanks Heidi! Yes, I originally thought of this as a summer dish, but I just pinned it to my Holidays board thinking how fabulous it would be for a holiday dinner!
mimi rippee says
This is a fabulous recipe! I created a recipe for salmon rillettes and was pretty proud of myself, thinking I'd invented it! Of course, every recipe I see now for salmon rillettes is different, and they're all wonderful. I'm going to make more before the holidays, since my experience was that they froze well. I love your recipe and will use it!
Chef Molly says
Thanks Mimi! Yes, I think there are many different versions of rillettes, but they're all so good! Excellent point on the freezing--I didn't think of that, but I bet they do freeze well!